Alphabet's Waymo Sues Uber Over Self-Driving Car Secrets
February 23 2017 - 7:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Tim Higgins and Jack Nicas
Google parent Alphabet Inc.'s heated rivalry with Uber
Technologies Inc. over self-driving cars has spilled into the
courthouse, after the internet giant sued the ride-hailing company
for allegedly stealing trade secrets to jump-start its own
autonomous vehicle program.
Anthony Levandowski, a former key manager in the Google
self-driving car project, is accused of secretly downloading 14,000
files before departing Alphabet last year to create Otto, a
self-driving truck maker acquired last year by Uber.
This information was allegedly used by Uber to develop a laser
sensor for self-driving navigation, according to the lawsuit filed
by Alphabet's Waymo LLC unit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in
San Francisco.
The suit accuses several other former Waymo employees of
downloading technical information and leaving to join Otto.
"Defendants leveraged stolen information to shortcut the process
and purportedly build a comparable (laser sensor) system in only
nine months, " Waymo's complaint said.
Uber didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, and
Mr. Levandowski couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com and Jack Nicas at
jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 23, 2017 19:14 ET (00:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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